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Definition of pater - 5 dictionary results

pa⋅ter

[pey-ter; also, for 2, 3 pat-er]
–noun
1. British Informal. father.
2. (often initial capital letter) the paternoster; Lord's Prayer.
3. a recitation of it.

Origin:
1300–50; ME < L: father

Pa⋅ter

[pey-ter]
–noun
Walter Horatio, 1839–94, English critic, essayist, and novelist.

pat

2[pat]
–adjective
1. exactly to the point or purpose; apt; opportune: a pat solution to a problem.
2. excessively glib; unconvincingly facile: His answers were too pat to suit the examining board.
3. learned, known, or mastered perfectly or exactly: to have something pat.
–adverb
4. exactly or perfectly.
5. aptly; opportunely.
6. down pat. down 1 (def. 49).
7. stand pat,
a. to cling or hold firm to one's decision, policy, or beliefs: The government must stand pat in its policy.
b. Poker. to play a hand as dealt, without drawing other cards.

Origin:
1570–80; orig. adverbial use of pat 1 , as obs. to hit pat to strike accurately


patness, noun
patter, noun
pa·ter   (pā'tər)   
n.   Chiefly British
Father.

[Latin; see pəter- in Indo-European roots.]
Pa·ter   (pā'tər)   
British writer remembered for his volumes of criticism, including Appreciations (1889).
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